62 shook his head in frustration. It wasn’t fair that the guards at the gate, Women most likely, hassled the group trying to get into Hanford. “It’s been rough since you’ve been gone,” 62 said. He told Blue about the Woman who’d attacked him.
“Holy Hanford,” Blue swore. “See what I mean? We can’t mess around with those bot parts. It’d push everybody over the edge.”
62 could feel the frustration building inside him. Not everyone in Hanford liked Boys like him, that much was obvious. Still, if his friends back in Adaline were in danger, he had to do something about it. “00 might be able to build the bot. He cracked the code to the doors in our pod, and even you admitted he’s figured out some way to make it easier to get around Adaline. If we don’t rebuild it, how else are we going to find out what happened to 42?”
Blue shook his head. “We can’t do it. I don’t even know where they’d put that junk. Maybe they’ll burn it. Or dig a hole and bury it.”
“We’ve got to find out,” 62 urged. “42 is my friend, and I think he’s yours, too. He might be in trouble. He might need us.”
“So what? It’s too dangerous to do anything about the doc, no matter what’s gone wrong. I’m not gonna risk my neck trying to figure out some crazy rescue mission.”
62 stood up and pointed at his chest. “Maybe you won’t, but I will.”
Blue sighed and slid off the side of the bed. “Whatever. You’re too little, and I’m too sane to get caught up in any kind of bot tinkering. I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe by then whatever that Woman knocked loose in your brain will fix itself and you’ll see how nuts all this is.”
“I’m not little!” 62 shouted. “You’re not that much older than me, and I bet I can rescue people just as well as you can. You saved me, and I’ve got to try to save 42.”
Blue stopped mid-stride on his path toward the door. He looked over his shoulder at 62, anger filling his eyes. “I didn’t go on some personal mission to find you in that hole,” he spat. “42 was the one who tracked you through the system with the chip he invented. He was the one who found out when the disposals were and told us when to pick up refugees. Sure, 00 can type in codes to hold open a couple of doors, or slow down the bot’s recognition time. But without 42, we don’t have any idea what’s going on in there. Without him, I never would have come back to get you,” Blue finished.
62 took a step back. “Yes you would have. You’re my friend.”
“We might be friends,” Blue admitted, “but I wouldn’t risk my life to rescue you, or anybody else. There’s no way me, Chance, or any other sane person up here would’ve kept going back without all the information 42 gave us. No way we’d just sit there and wait to see what happened. If it hadn’t been for 42...” Blue shrugged his shoulders. He opened the door, but paused on the threshold.
“I’d be dead.” 62 realized.
“Yeah.” Blue pulled the door closed behind him as he left. The latch clicked shut and 62 was left alone in the dark of his room once more.
CHAPTER 26
62’S STOMACH FELT LIKE it was trying to roll over after the questionable bits of jellied berries he’d just eaten. He fought to keep himself moving forward though, and made it to the library just in time. He found the outhouse and got rid of the lump in his gut before going into the library to find Mattie. His stomach let out a low grumble just as he reached her.
“Enjoying the food?” Mattie joked from behind her book.
“Yeah, it’s great,” 62 groaned.
“Certainly sounds like it’s going well,” she snickered.
62 ignored the teasing and did his best to stand up tall. “I need your help.”
“I told you that stuff is normal.”
“Not with that,” 62 pointed at his stomach. Then he pointed at his forehead. “With this.”
“I showed you the books to read. They’re still out on the table for you.” Mattie put her own book down and started walking in the direction of the reading room.
62 followed behind. “I know, and they look really interesting. But I was hoping that we could speed things up. See, I have a friend down in Adaline and I think he’s in trouble. I’ve got to connect with him in my dreams to find out where he is, but I haven’t been able to. I think I’m too far away.”
Mattie snorted. “And you think I’m going to be able to fix it so you can magically use dream telepathy?” They entered the reading room and Mattie pulled a chair out near the stack of books she’d collected for 62. “It’s not something I can just teach, you know.”
“Why not? In Adaline, my friend taught me how to share dreams, and we didn’t even have any books.”
Mattie shuffled through the stack until she found the book she wanted. “It took a long time for me to learn how to do it,” she said matter-of-factly. “More than a year.”
“I don’t have that long,” 62 complained. “42’s in trouble right now. Maybe since I already know how to dream my way, I’ll be able to learn your way faster.”
Mattie laid the book called The Oneironaut and the Telepathic Dream down on the table. She flipped through the pages until she found a chapter titled, Paired Oneironauts. “There’s not any set instructions,” she commented. “Just bits and pieces in each of these books that I put together. I read each of them about a dozen times before I started having any dreams at all.”
“How did you connect with someone in Adaline, though?” 62 leaned forward and glanced at the page. It was overflowing with words he’d never seen before. He was going to need help just understanding what the book said. He looked up at Mattie. “I was only able to share dreams with someone I knew really well. Someone who I could picture in my mind. But you’ve got no way to know anyone down there.”
Mattie looked off in the distance with her face screwed up as she tried to remember. “One night, I was floating around in my dreams, and someone appeared in it. He was old and wrinkly, and said he’d been trying to contact me for a long time.”
“What’s his number?” 62 asked, scanning the open page.
“He doesn’t have one.”
62 frowned. “That’s impossible. Everyone in Adaline has one.”
“Everyone except him, maybe.” Mattie opened another book and began flipping through it. “I only know him as The Curator.”
“Do you still share dreams with him?” 62 dragged his finger over a passage in the book in front of him that described passing through another person’s consciousness. It was totally different than the glowing tear that he used to join dreams with his friends.
“Sure.” Mattie beamed. “He likes books, and so do I. I memorize as many books as I can, and then I read them to him in my sleep.”
“What does he do with the books you share with him?” 62 paused his reading and focused on Mattie.
“He puts them in a library that he keeps in his brain.” Mattie giggled. “Can you imagine, keeping all those books in your head?”
“Yes, I can.” 62 lowered himself down into one of the chairs beside Mattie. “When I used to dream back in Adaline, my friend brought me books. Books about the above ground. We read them all the time, but we thought everything in them was make-believe.”
“What?” Mattie turned to look at him.
“We dreamed about clouds, and ants, and bluebirds. I thought the sky was a giant ceiling, and when all I could see was the horizon, I thought I was just in a really big room. But everything we dreamed was stuff that 71 had read in a book.” He scanned the library around them, eyes widening with realization. “He was reading about Hanford, Mattie.”
“But that would mean that you were reading...” Mattie traced the outline of the book in front of her with her finger. “You think that you were reading books from The Curator’s library?”
“My friend, 71, shared dreams with other people. I didn’t meet most of them, but he told me that the books came from a library. One that he could only go to in his dreams.” 62’s jaw dropped and his eyes went wide.
“What is
it?”
“Mattie,” 62 shivered with excitement, “do you have joke books?”
“Follow me.” The pair rushed through the library to a corner of the nonfiction section. Mattie pointed her finger at the shelves, mumbling titles and the names of authors. Her eyes lit up when she found what she was looking for. She pulled a thin volume from the shelf and wiped the cover on her pants. It was dirty and worn with age and use. “This is the only one I’ve ever read,” Mattie said quietly.
62 took the small book in his hands. He looked up at her. “I’ve seen this book before,” he said in amazement. “This is the book 71 used to practice telling jokes from. He said they helped keep students’ attention in class. Mattie, The Curator knows 71.”
“But 71’s not the friend you’re trying to connect with, is he?” Mattie screwed up her face.
62’s eyes watered, “71 was caught by Defense and it was all my fault. If he’s working for them then he can’t know I’m alive because he might tell them. And if he isn’t working for them, he may be dead. But if I can find a way to talk to The Curator, maybe I can connect with 42. Maybe 42 will know what happened to 71. At least The Curator might be able to find out where they are.” 62 felt the weight of his friends’ disappearance bearing down on him. “If I can find out what happened to them, maybe I can find a way to help them.”
CHAPTER 27
MATTIE, 00, AND BLUE were crammed into 62’s room. The morning had involved trying cow’s milk for the first time, and now 62 was sweaty, clammy, and exhausted from his time spent in the outhouse. He lay back in bed, staring at the ceiling while his friends all tried to convince him that eventually he’d feel better.
“It takes time to get your system in order,” Mattie explained. She turned the multicolored patchwork of her facemask over in her hands. “You’ve got to build up all of the bacteria and enzymes that the rest of us have had for ages. Once you do, you’ll be able to drink as much milk as you want.”
“But I don’t want milk ever again!” 62 moaned. “It’s Parker’s fault. He told us that it was just a new drink, just like the juice we’ve had in the cafeteria.”
“Well, he’s not wrong.” Blue shrugged. “It is just a drink. But it goes better with other food than juice does. I like a glass of milk with berries chopped up inside.”
“I like to pour it over peaches.” 00 licked his lips.
62 covered his head with his pillow. His voice came out muffled. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Sure. Has anyone new beat you up lately?” Mattie teased, climbing up on top of 62’s dresser and settling on it cross-legged as if it were the most comfortable chair in the room.
“Have you given up on building the bot yet?” Blue chided. He hopped up on the bed, landing on 62’s feet.
“We’re building a bot?” 00 reached over from the window and pulled the pillow off of 62’s face.
62 propped himself up on his elbow. A wave of nausea ran through him and he breathed deep to keep his stomach where it belonged. After a long minute of silence, he opened his eyes. He pointed at Mattie. “No.” He pointed at Blue. “No.” He pointed at 00. “Yes.”
“What do you want to build a bot for?” Mattie asked from her perch. “Haven’t you had enough of them?”
“He thinks he can rebuild that modded unit we found in his friend’s lab,” Blue said with a chuff. He pointed at 62 with his thumb. “Like he’s just magically going to know how to boot the thing up.”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” 00 said. “Sure, we’d have to redirect some electricity without anyone knowing, and we’d need a spot to build it where nobody would notice, but there’s enough scrap around that we might be able to rig something to plug the memory unit into at least. We won’t get away with building the whole bot, of course, but we might be able to read the files.”
“You think so?” 62 sat up like a shot, immediately regretting the quick movement. He gagged. Blue and 00 both leaned away from his pale face, hoping to avoid any sudden eruption. 62 bent his head down, breathing heavy. He waved a hand over his head. “I’m fine,” he wheezed.
“You can’t animate a bot here,” Mattie said firmly. She crossed her arms over her chest and sat up tall, seeming suddenly more motherly than normal. “For one thing, if it sends a signal back to Adaline, Hanford would be toast. For another, to tinker with technology like that, you’d have to break about a dozen laws.”
“We’ve got to find a way to figure out what that Nurse knows,” 62 complained. “If we don’t, we might never find out what happened to 42.”
“And what about dreaming, huh?” Mattie glared. “I thought we were going to work on connecting to The Curator to find out what happened.”
“We’re doing that, too,” 62 answered. “It doesn’t hurt to have two plans.”
“You’re gonna try to dream with somebody from Adaline?” Blue frowned. “Like that’s gotten you anywhere good before?”
“Yeah,” 00 added. “Isn’t that exactly how that lady who attacked you said you’d start a war?”
62 felt the nausea build up again. His energy waned and he knew he didn’t have the stamina to argue, but he had to try. He put his hands in the air in surrender. “I know, I know. We aren’t supposed to use tech here, and we aren’t supposed to dream our way into Adaline. But nobody around here follows the rules, do they?” He pointed at Mattie. “You dream with The Curator, even though it’s been illegal since you were born.” He pointed at Blue. “And you make friends with people in Adaline even though I know you aren’t supposed to.”
“Yeah,” 00 chimed in. “You guys break the rules all the time.”
62 turned on 00. “And you hide a stockpile of meal tabs even though you’re supposed to be eating this horrible food like the rest of us.” 00 blushed. The other two fumed in silence. He looked each of them in the eye and pleaded one last time. “If I try to figure out how to connect with 42 in my dreams alone, it could take years. He could die before I figure it out. And I’d probably get old and die before I could sort out the wires and coding to build that bot. But if you guys help, we might have a chance at discovering what’s happening while there’s still time to do something about it.”
The room was flooded with silent thought. 62 knew he was asking a lot of his friends, even if they were used to bending the rules. If they got caught, they’d be in a mess of trouble on all sides. They could be discovered by Adaline, by Hanford, or both.
Blue broke the silence first. “I know where there’s an old research building,” he said in a low, cautious voice. “It hasn’t been used in ages. The tech is outdated and the whole building’s a mess. No electricity. But there’s tools there.”
“If we can find enough parts, we could build a solar panel out of scrap,” 00 offered. “When I helped work on the panels last spring, we threw the broken bits in the dump heap over the fence. We might be able to find enough to build a small panel there.”
Mattie’s face was a dark cloud. “Once you get your guts in order and you aren’t pooping your pants every twenty minutes, we can start trying to share dreams. Maybe we can figure out how to get you into my dream and you can meet The Curator.” She looked at the three Boys around her, her scowl not lifting in the slightest. “There’s books on computing and electronics at the library. I won’t cover for you if anyone finds out about the tech. If they ask me, I’ll tell them you stole the books and turn you all in for theft.”
“This is gonna be great!” 62 yelled. He bounced on the bed, unable to contain his excitement. Then his eyes widened, his cheeks turned red, and everyone scrambled out of his way when he hit the floor and leaped toward the door. “Gotta go!” he yelled over his shoulder as he tore down the hallway toward the outhouse.
“This is a horrible idea,” Mattie grumbled. Blue nodded in agreement and 00 tried not to look quite so excited.
CHAPTER 28
SCHOOL GOT OUT EARLY because someone vomited scrambled eggs all over the floor. 62 gagged on the eggs when
he’d tried them, too, but for once they seemed to be sitting still in his stomach instead of shooting through him like a rocket. He trotted through the crisp afternoon air toward the library where the others had been all morning. The sun was shining and the sky was a bright blue. The loose dirt still swirled in dust devils across the roads, but the gaps between buildings where the wind was blocked were almost warm enough to be pleasant.
He bounded into the library feeling happier than he had in months. He had a purpose now. A reason to get out of bed in the morning and face the day. When he found his friends in the reading room, both Mattie and 00 were surrounded by stacks of books. Blue was tucked into an old armchair in the corner, asleep. 00 and Mattie gave silent waves to 62 when they noticed him, and then turned back to the pages of their books.
“How’s it going?” 62 asked in a low voice as he settled into a chair across the table from the two researchers.
00 held up a finger in the air, signaling that he needed a minute to finish the passage he was reading. Once his eyes were done darting across the page, he looked up with a lopsided frown. “Do you want the good news, or the bad news?”
62 folded his arms on the table in front of him. He laid his chin on his forearm. “The good news, I guess.”
Mattie looked up from her book. “We found out where the bot parts are.”
“Really? That’s great!” 62’s smile spread until his cheeks hurt. Neither of his friends shared his expression. Their eyes looked worried and their mouths turned down into serious frowns. “What’s the bad news?”
“The elders are discussing the best way to dispose of them right now,” 00 complained.
“What are we sitting around here for then? Let’s go talk to them and get the parts back.” 62 stood up, the legs of his chair scraping across the floor. Neither 00 or Mattie followed his lead, and Blue let out a loud snort from the corner where he slept.
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